Extreme Weather and Climate Change: Population Health and Health System Implications

Abstract

Extreme weather and climate events, such as heat waves, cyclones, and floods, are an expression of climate variability. These events and events influenced by climate change, such as wildfires, continue to cause significant human morbidity and mortality and adversely affect mental health and well-being. Although adverse health impacts from extreme events declined over the past few decades, climate change and more people moving into harm's way could alter this trend. Long-term changes to Earth's energy balance are increasing the frequency and intensity of many extreme events and the probability of compound events, with trends projected to accelerate under certain greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. While most of these events cannot be completely avoided, many of the health risks could be prevented through building climate-resilient health systems with improved risk reduction, preparation, response, and recovery. Conducting vulnerability and adaptation assessments and developing health system adaptation plans can identify priority actions to effectively reduce risks, such as disaster risk management and more resilient infrastructure. The risks are urgent, so action is needed now. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 42 is April 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Health Risks to the Russian Population from Temperature Extremes at the Beginning of the XXI Century

“…Significant and increasing direct and indirect impacts of extreme temperature events on human health -excessive morbidity and mortality [2,8,, negative effects on mental health [8,53,124,[129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136], human and community well-being [1,8,30,76,86,120,126,129,130], and health care systems [57,125,137] -are becoming an increasingly urgent global problem. Much is known about health consequences of heat and cold waves [1,[42][43][44][46][47][48][49]51,55,56,62,[69][70][71][72][73][74]79,81,83,86,[93][94]...…”

Environmental concentrations of Roundup in combination with chlorpromazine or heating causes biochemical disturbances in the bivalve mollusc Unio tumidus

“…To reflect the hazard of chemical pollution on the aquatic life, the input of the abnormal temperatures as an important and even crucial driver should also be taken into consideration. The frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme heat events are projected to continue to increase through the twenty-first century, with all regions expected to experience unprecedented temperatures (Ebi et al 2021 ). Elevated temperature is known to exacerbate the toxicity or distort effects in bivalve molluscs induced by xenobiotics such as mixtures containing Rnd (Negri et al 2013 ; Patra et al 2015 ; Payton et al 2016 ; Louis et al 2020 ; Khoma et al 2021 ).…”

Ecology of Powassan Virus in the United States

“…Global climate change is leading towards rising annual temperatures, caused largely in part by the excess release of carbon dioxide and methane [83]. Resulting extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, droughts, and flooding, target global regions differently, and this can impact the growing distribution potential of vector populations [84,85]. In the US, ecological and climate modeling has predicted a growing distribution of I. cookei northward into Canada and a decreasing presence southward in the US, while I. scapularis is predicted to expand northward and westward [71], exposing new areas to tick-borne pathogens.…”